Whirlwind tour of Florence

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Only 6-7 hours in Florence ... man, it was a crazy whirlwind tour. More importantly, it was the worst day I've had since I started traveling. Everything that could go wrong did! The trains/station workers were on strike from 9 to 5pm, so we had to wait in line for nearly an hour to get our reservations for the train to Venice. once we finally made it out of the station, it was nearly 12pm. Making our way to the Uffizi, we wandered around the Duomo, since we couldn't go in. (Shorts guarantee that you will be turned away from any church you wish to tour ... I thought we learned out lesson from the St. Peter's incident.) So, we walked towards the Uffizi. Lo and behold, Chris couldn't get in ... it was his only must-see place in Florence. Unfortunately, you need to buy a ticket a day in advance for a specific time. Somewhat frustrated, we walked it off as we hiked to Piazzale Michelangelo. What a breathtaking view of the city! But, my legs were so tired from walking Rome for two straight days that I could barely bring myself to do any more walking. We stopped for lunch at the top and made our way back down to Santa Croce afterwards.
Sitting in a basement internet cafe, we gathered as much info as possible on getting to Croatia, but it was to no avail. The most important leg from Split to Vis was not showing up with a timetable. So, we tried to call my coworker's brother-in-law to ask questions. However, the phone card I bought from a vender in the stazione had already expired. When I tried to return it citing the expiration, he said it was my problem! In addition, the train to Venice was a half hour late. We didn't get into our hotel until nearly 11:30. Exhausted ... I fell right into bed without even eating dinner.
Sometimes the reality of traveling is far less enticing than the anticipation of it.

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Photos

The Duomo
The colors of this building are absolutely amazing ... slightly muted reds, greens, pinks and whites.

Ponte Vecchio
The light hit this just right so I snapped a shot of this landmark.

Comments

[Manx]

Too true!
How true your last comment is! But sometimes even exhaustion feels good when you think what you have seen and done to feel that way!

[SueB]

Best laid plans....
Too bad about the Ufizzi. The day we had planned to see it was a holiday. Who knew? How would one know? Anyway, we saw a lot of Florence and the Ufizzi the next day. Had to wait in line for 3-4 hours. And we even knew about the "day in advance" ticket purchase.